Hilary Duff hits out at body-shamers: “My body has given me the greatest gift”

After tabloid websites and magazines posted what they deemed were “unflattering” photos of Hilary Duff, the actor and mum-of-one took charge of the narrative, proudly reposting one of the shots to Instagram.

Family time

Hilary was enjoying a day at the beach with her 5-year-old son Luca, when paparazzi snapped a series of photos of her in a bathing suit. The shots were then republished, with the accompanying commentary focusing on Hilary’s size and shape.

Imagine it. You’ve finally wrapped up work and can spend some well-deserved time busting out a bit of summer-y r&r with your nearest and dearest. Cue sneaky, money-hungry photographers hiding in bushes with long lenses, poised to zoom in on your thighs, tummy… chin, even. It’s the highly unfair price celebrities pay for fame.

Kiss it!

It’s not the first time she’s been targeted by intrusive paps, but this time the former Lizzy McGuire star decided to switch things up and provide some context, giving followers a little more insight into the human behind those recently published pics.

“My body has given me the greatest gift of my life: Luca, 5 years ago,” she wrote alongside one of the tabloid shots. “My body is healthy and gets me where I need to go.”

Not only did she make it clear that body acceptance and self-love was top-of-mind, she encouraged other women to work on loving the powerful skin they are in, too:

I am posting this on behalf of young girls, women, and mothers of all ages. I’m enjoying a vacation with my son after a long season of shooting and being away from him for weeks at a time over those months. Since websites and magazines love to share ‘celeb flaws’ – well I have them! My body has given me the greatest gift of my life: Luca, 5 years ago. I’m turning 30 in September and my body is healthy and gets me where I need to go. Ladies, lets be proud of what we’ve got and stop wasting precious time in the day wishing we were different, better, and unflawed. You guys (you know who you are!) already know how to ruin a good time, and now you are body shamers as well. #kissmyass 😛✌🏻

“Beautiful!”

While we don’t love the series of unfortunate and intrusive events that prompted Hilary’s post, we could not love her message more.

Her followers were keen to offer their support:

“Love it, you look beautiful, everything on you is beautiful!” one wrote.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re one hot momma!” another said.

“You look great girl!” someone else said.

It’s kind of regrettable that women are often diminished to the sum of their various body parts – and that rushing in to say “you’re beautiful!” or “you’re hot” is very often the well-intentioned response to this kind of shaming.

There’s so much more to us than how our thighs look to other people!

Promoting a more all-encompassing idea of value – one that doesn’t hinge on “beauty” – is a much better way forward, we think. Strength, compassion, intelligence, kindness, resilience… let’s start talking about that stuff, instead.

(Thanks to Hilary for extending this important conversation via her Instagram!)